


The Last Resort

by SensationalSunburst



Series: PawPaw!Cor [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Sad but let's be real folks, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 14:36:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9661628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SensationalSunburst/pseuds/SensationalSunburst
Summary: This was the end. Ignis knew it in his soul. He'd known it was the end the moment Noctis had stood to address them at that final campfire a lifetime ago. He'd known it when he'd bowed to the last king of Lucis. His king. His friend.But Ignis was nothing if not prepared, he just wasn't expecting Gladio to be too.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory Notification of:  
> \+ First Fic Ever  
> +Not Beta-ed. I'm literally brand spankin' new, so if someone wants to? Hell yes.

The inhuman groans that felled MTs emitted used to unsettle Ignis. At one time he objectively knew that these were enemies; attempting to kill him and his charge and that even if they had been fully fledged humans, he would have felled them with the same merciless grace he did run-of-the-mill monsters. But then things had gone straight to hell and he had struggled with knowing that underneath those impassive helmets were human faces, human faces that may or may not look like Prompto. 

He’d struggled the with it. Felt an uncomfortable knot in the center of his chest, more than grateful at his inability to see just what was under those helmets as he heard the clang of a metal head rolling against the grass after a particularly fearsome strike. 

These days, he couldn’t care less. At the moment, he didn’t care at all. He had a mission. 

Protect Noct until he ascended. 

Another knot, this one large enough to send him off kilter, began to form in his chest as the thought of just what Noctis ascending to the throne really meant, but he shoved it down viciously. There was no time to think of such things. Not when another wave of demons were coming. He could hear them rumbling in the distance, the impossibly heavy footsteps of an Iron Giant leading the charge (two… three- Iron Giants, his mind corrected as the out of synch footsteps echoed against the walls of the Citadel). 

Noctis had left them some time ago; but Ignis was unable to recall just how long. Or just how long they had been fighting. They’d run out of curatives several waves ago; a possibility he had accepted as soon as they had set foot in Insomina. His left arm hung nearly useless at his side, and he could feel the slow drain of blood loss beginning to take it’s toll. The rain and later thunder had made it increasingly more difficult to hear his opponents and he had paid the price dearly. He could hear that the others weren’t faring as well either. Prompto had gone silent sometime after they had been forced to abandon their impromptu battle sections to tackle a Naga, and Gladio’s grunts of exertion were now laced with pain. 

“Re-Regroup!” 

The command was slow to leave his lips and sounded choked to even his own ears, but it had the desired effect as he heard the Shield's heavy (uneven, his mind warned) footsteps climb the few stairs to reach him. Ignis reached into his pocket and felt the cool hum of his final magic flask in his hand. 

His Last Resort. 

Gladio’s heavy breathing alerted Ignis to his arrival, and his hand tightened over the flask in his pocket. Gladio… but not Prompto. 

“Where is-” 

“He..” Gladio swallowed over an audible lump in his throat and spit to the ground. “He- went on ahead.” A large warm handed landed on his good shoulder and squeezed tightly. Ignis opened his mouth and closed it, mortified that Prompto had fallen without him noticing. 

“Dammit.” He ground out, removing his glasses to rub furiously at his ruined eyes. There were no tears to shed, he’d lost that ability along with his sight, but the furiously prickling sensation remained. Ignis had known, as they all must have known, that this mission, their grand final adventure, would bear no survivors. He had simply thought he would be the first to go. 

The giants were approaching. 

Ignis threw his darkened glasses to the ground and drew the spell from his pocket. There was a beat of silence, and the rustle of Gladio’s hair against his shoulder as he looked down to see what Ignis now held. Gladio’s hand, which had remained on his shoulder, went stiff and still as he processed what Ignis knew was the swirling mass of inky black magic within. 

A Killcast. 

“Iggy…” 

Ignis mimicked Gladio’s most common form of dissent and rumbled low in his throat. 

“No, Gladio.” He snapped. He’d been expecting this lecture, either from the man in front of him or the one lost below, and had prepared his lecture ages ago. “Look at me, I’m finished. I will not allo-” 

“Iggy! Iggy stop. I know. _I know._ ” Gladio shook his shoulder once, firmly, and Ignis snapped his mouth shut, teeth clattering together as his emotions rose up, unbidden to the surface. Gladio’s voice with thick and low and removed his hand to reach into his own pocket, the chains and embellishments on his Kingsguard uniform clanging together as he dug to find something buried within. 

“Just… _Gods_ , Noct was right, this is stupidly hard.” Gladio growled, frustrated at himself. He grabbed Ignis’s left hand and pressed something round and cold into it, allowing Ignis to see what the man was attempting to get at. 

Ignis barked out a startled laugh as he felt the same dark energy that he held in his right hand swirl up in his left. 

Gladio had a Killcast of his own. 

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in this life.” He said, “Leaving you and Prom in the Dark was one of the biggest. This time… this time just…” 

Gladio retrieved his spell and placed his hand on Ignis’s arm, gripping it like a lifeline through the thick, bloodsoaked fabric. 

“Don’t go where I can’t follow.” 

Ignis closed the distance between them and threw his good arm around his closest friend. Gladio returned the hug fiercely, adamantly ignoring the roars of the monsters gathering below them. The Giants were almost upon them now, and even from their distance, he could feel the heat from radiating from their massive swords. 

“Together, then.” Ignis nodded, stepping back. 

“Together.” Gladio echoed. 

Both men turned and descended the steps at a leisurely pace to meet the dawn, Killcasts raised high above their heads. When the reached the base of the stairs, Ignis turned to smile in the direction of his brother and he could feel Gladio smile back.

They hurled the spells to the concrete. 

Together.   


**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'm SensationalSunburst, thank you for reading. Please don't hesitate to comment below with questions or suggestions.  
> Thanks!


End file.
